Classes 2017

Explorations in Double TwillTwo-hour lecture at the Complex Weavers Southeast Gathering. June 17-18, 2017, at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Room. For more information on the Gathering, click on above link.

Spin Your Own YarnJan. 17 - Mar. 13. Learn to use the simple drop spindle to spin your own woolen yarn for knitting, crochet, or weaving. This hand tool of prehistoric origin is inexpensive, portable, and easy to use. Create a mid-weight yarn suitable for garments, accessories, and household items. Pack all your spinning supplies in a lunchbag-sized tote and take it with you on vacation! Click on Winter Brochure 2017.

Books

The Woven Pixel: Designing for Jacquard and Dobby Looms Using Photoshop®Co-authored by Alice Schlein and Bhakti Ziek. 362 pages, many illustrations. Now available for free download on handweaving.net. The accompanying CD with 1400 pattern presets is not included with the free download, but may be purchased separately. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for more information.

Network Drafting: An IntroductionBy Alice Schlein. Break away from the block. Curves for your dobby loom. Originally published in 1994, now available as print-on-demand from www.lulu.com.

Monographs

Lampas for Shaft LoomsClass notes from Complex Weavers Seminars 2016, newly revised and formatted, in pdf form for download. A review of methods for designing your own lampas fabrics for treadle looms, table looms, and dobbies, eight shafts and above. Over 90 color photos of actual fabrics with drafts. Includes info on pickup lampas and a lampas bibliography. View on a computer, or print out one copy for your own use. USD$21. via PayPal. Email aschlein[at]att[dot]net for ordering info.

A Crepe Is Not Just a Pancake52 pages of text, b&w and color diagrams, and drafts for multishaft tradle & dobby looms. Many color photos of actual cloth. Methods for drafting your own crepe weaves. Annotated bibliography. Pdf available for immediate download. $21. USD. Payment by PayPal. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for payment instructions.

Echo Weave Based on the 1996 article in Weaver's, Issue 32. With brand new diagrams and high resolution scans of original fabrics. Pdf available for immediate download. $7. USD. Payment by PayPal. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for payment instructions.

September 25, 2017

Still miles to go on the Herdwick wool. This is the first time I've ever spun & woven in tandem: spin a few hours, wash & block the yarn, then weave a few days with yesterday's spun wool. I guess you'd call it just in time production. It's a little scary.

September 20, 2017

My first Herdwick singles went into a sample blanket for a new lampas piece. I used my previous presets: the pattern wefts interlace in 3-end twill. I didn't like the effect; I thought the pattern warps should be more widely spaced.

So I worked out a new set of presets in which the pattern warps interlace in 5-end satin. Much better for this yarn. Here are a few aspect ratio samples using the new structure:

That works. The Herdwick is very hairy. I love the way it contrasts in texture with the smoother cotton & silk yarns.

So glad I like it, as I purchased a full pound. Now I've got to sit and spin for a while! Any suggestions for binge watching? I prefer crime dramas. Not too much violence, but I don't like cosies either. Somewhere in between.

September 11, 2017

Here it is 2 pm and the winds still haven't come. An eerie sense of waiting. Impossible to believe they will bypass us. Meanwhile, even though it's unusually dark for mid-afternoon, I continue to weave. I've picked up all the stragglers from the studio floor in case of flooding, and I'm doing some aspect ratio test for jacquard. One of the pattern wefts is cotton and the other is the terra-cotta wool I spun this week and just finished winding on spools.

Oddly, it came out almost exactly square: 63 epi and 63 ppi! This has never happened to me before. Perhaps it's an omen!

I'm waiting for the tail end of Hurricane Irma. We're expecting more wind and rain this afternoon, but nothing like what Florida experienced. I'm hoping there won't be too many trees down and that we won't undergo a power failure, but that's iffy in South Carolina.

Here's all the spinning I did while watching the weather channel with our Florida evacuee over the past few days:

Now to wind it onto bobbins and begin the next jacquard weaving. If the power goes, I'll switch to tapestry…until the daylight goes.

August 20, 2017

No, not that Convergence (although I might be going). It's convergence with a lower case c. You see, I have woven two lampas panels for a diptych. Although I have striven to keep an even beat so that the two panels would line up exactly after they have been cut from the loom, one can never be sure. I just cut the second panel off yesterday, and was shocked to find, when I laid it alongside the first panel, that it was an inch longer than its mate!!!

But now that it has had time to rest, and the two panels are in an equally relaxed state of tension, they are very nearly the exact same length. Their selvedges are in convergence. O frabjous day!

August 19, 2017

Now that the little loom is warped up I can show you the full effect of the M's & O's draft I talked about in this post. I find it astonishing that so much pattern can be eked out of a simple 4-shaft draft. It's humbling,. If I were marooned on a desert island with only one loom, and it were this one, I'd be OK.

Here's a closeup of the fabric. Now mind you, it's still under tension and will be a whole different animal after it has been washed & tumbled.

Now here's my further tweaking of the original draft. Feel free to borrow it, but be sure to give credit to the original weaver, Alcestis Low.